Re: Test equipment.
I have a couple of McDAQ USB cards -- these have 8 12 bit ADC inputs, 2 DAC outputs and 16 digital I/O ports. You can use "softwire" to hook the items up in the "virtual" space if you know even a bit about Visual Basic., softwire can do Fast Fourier or dump the data to Excel. The low end USB (1.2 ks/s) card is $109, and worth it!
gearheaddruid said:
There is a lot of competition for NI now and cards like mine are now less than $400 new! I highly recommend looking at the new generation of p.c. based instruments. Best regards, Steve
I have a couple of McDAQ USB cards -- these have 8 12 bit ADC inputs, 2 DAC outputs and 16 digital I/O ports. You can use "softwire" to hook the items up in the "virtual" space if you know even a bit about Visual Basic., softwire can do Fast Fourier or dump the data to Excel. The low end USB (1.2 ks/s) card is $109, and worth it!
Softwire
Softwire is now freeware, provided that you have a copy of Microcost Visual Net and Visual Basic -- there is also a user group which Measurement Computing started in support of the product:
http://forums.softwire.com/
Softwire is now freeware, provided that you have a copy of Microcost Visual Net and Visual Basic -- there is also a user group which Measurement Computing started in support of the product:
http://forums.softwire.com/
Various PC software
Creamware 16 channel ADAT to DA/AD converter connected to hammerfall card.
EL cheapo 20 MHZ scope
Home made 4A +- 0-30VDC PSU (relay reset)
Home made 1.5A +- 15v PSU(relay reset)
12v chinese switching supply 13A
5v chinese switching supply 5.5A
amplifier+speakers
Fairly nice chinese adjustable heat soldering station
lots of tools includin a lathe
BIG SMOKE EXTRACTOR FAN
Creamware 16 channel ADAT to DA/AD converter connected to hammerfall card.
EL cheapo 20 MHZ scope
Home made 4A +- 0-30VDC PSU (relay reset)
Home made 1.5A +- 15v PSU(relay reset)
12v chinese switching supply 13A
5v chinese switching supply 5.5A
amplifier+speakers
Fairly nice chinese adjustable heat soldering station
lots of tools includin a lathe
BIG SMOKE EXTRACTOR FAN
Gee. All I have on my test bench.. Is a large glass bottle of Heineken I just opened. *burp!*
Helps me think, though. Best tool ever.
OK. Lets get real for a second. I've NEVER used anything beyond a multi-meter. I've never even used manuals or schematics. Luxuries that they are. I can count my use of schematics on the fingers of one hand, with hundreds of different devices, analog and digital crossinng my bench. I tend to feel:--- if you can't figure it out.......
Helps me think, though. Best tool ever.
OK. Lets get real for a second. I've NEVER used anything beyond a multi-meter. I've never even used manuals or schematics. Luxuries that they are. I can count my use of schematics on the fingers of one hand, with hundreds of different devices, analog and digital crossinng my bench. I tend to feel:--- if you can't figure it out.......
I am wanting to swap my bench over to a mostly PC based setup but have been having a hard time finding info on how or what to do it with. i recently looked a Tek TDS3000 series scope that had a VGA output on it.
I work fo a A/V installer and ocassionally i come across used 42" plasma/LCD type screens with several screen burn. i can get them for free or nearly free. i want to put one on my bench wall and use a PC type system for my scope, V-Measurments, etc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.
My current bench setup contains a
Sencor SC-61 scope
Home made variac
Well Dig temp co soldering iron
EPE De-solder system
Home made 12V supply
Homemade 10-18V supply
Mini RS stereo amp and tuner
Old KLH speakers
Fluke 189 DMM
POS old DMM
and lots of MISC.
Zc
I work fo a A/V installer and ocassionally i come across used 42" plasma/LCD type screens with several screen burn. i can get them for free or nearly free. i want to put one on my bench wall and use a PC type system for my scope, V-Measurments, etc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.
My current bench setup contains a
Sencor SC-61 scope
Home made variac
Well Dig temp co soldering iron
EPE De-solder system
Home made 12V supply
Homemade 10-18V supply
Mini RS stereo amp and tuner
Old KLH speakers
Fluke 189 DMM
POS old DMM
and lots of MISC.
Zc
do a google search for 'PC based scope meter' and you will find several 'pre-amp/black box/digital/PC interface' devices that are very friendly in terms of price and capacities.
The best, of course, being the Audio Systems One? (I forget the proper name, the high price nearly knocked me unconcious when I heard it) which is hideously expensive. ie, $60-80-100+k.
The ones I am thinking of, for your use, come in at under $1k, on average, depending on how high you want to go in resolution and frequency. After that, it is ususally software modules that describe a given system's capacities to do automated measurements. And that is limited, at this time.. it is a new area. this will change over the coming months and short-long term. It appears to be ramping up, as we type....
The reason for the whole thing being current and NEW..is the large amount of new A-D converters with high enough resolution to be stressed into this 'task' of being a PC based measurement system. Untill recently such devices did not exist, or where limited in resolution. Now, you can get, chips that either have very high smaple rates at low bit levels (ie, 12 bit and lower, but at 100 mhz+ sampling rate) or high bit levels (24 bits resolution) but lower sampling rates (mhz or lower). Your choice, to a certain extent, now that the chips are finally here, and cheap.
The best, of course, being the Audio Systems One? (I forget the proper name, the high price nearly knocked me unconcious when I heard it) which is hideously expensive. ie, $60-80-100+k.
The ones I am thinking of, for your use, come in at under $1k, on average, depending on how high you want to go in resolution and frequency. After that, it is ususally software modules that describe a given system's capacities to do automated measurements. And that is limited, at this time.. it is a new area. this will change over the coming months and short-long term. It appears to be ramping up, as we type....
The reason for the whole thing being current and NEW..is the large amount of new A-D converters with high enough resolution to be stressed into this 'task' of being a PC based measurement system. Untill recently such devices did not exist, or where limited in resolution. Now, you can get, chips that either have very high smaple rates at low bit levels (ie, 12 bit and lower, but at 100 mhz+ sampling rate) or high bit levels (24 bits resolution) but lower sampling rates (mhz or lower). Your choice, to a certain extent, now that the chips are finally here, and cheap.
I dont have any test gear at home beyond the usual DMM. Ive been lucky enough to get by with the tools i have acess to at my school's graduate lab . Ill continue to use the labs until they force me to graduate. A few of my buddies did a thesis on a PC based scope/function generator. I havnt seen their final results yet but from what i have heard they have gotten very good results. 300Mhz with 20M/samples per second last time i heard. They plan to do a production run soon open to fellow students. They expect the total cost including 4 layer PCB and parts to run $100 CDN. Amazing what you can do with modern ICs and a computer.
. Ill continue to use the labs until they force me to graduate. A few of my buddies did a thesis on a PC based scope/function generator. I havnt seen their final results yet but from what i have heard they have gotten very good results. 300Mhz with 20M/samples per second last time i heard. They plan to do a production run soon open to fellow students. They expect the total cost including 4 layer PCB and parts to run $100 CDN. Amazing what you can do with modern ICs and a computer.
PC based scope.
Zero, I have an extra National Instruments DAQ card for ISA. It will do 1.25 Msps as a scope. Look at the website
(www.natinst.com) and you will see some examples. This is the same card I am using on my bench. With the NI software it can be almost anything you could imagine. The software comes with a whole suite of test instruments already made. You just click on the list and instant dso, freq counter, dmm, signal generator, spectrum analyzer,ect. I have about $100 in this card if you would be interested. It orignally cost around $2000. There is a lot of DAQ pc stuff on Ebay at very cheap prices. NI now has a lot of competition. Also look up Tern. They have a nice assortment of external serial or usb DAQ items.
I used the pcmcia version of my NI card for capturing the sound of a gun firing through a silencer. A customer wanted to graph the differences made by modifying the sections in his silencer. You could replay the graph (amplitude across time) and see the hammer strike, the bullet exit the barrel, and the bullet hitting the sand and foam target 20 feet away. It worked out real well. The hammer was the loudest sound when he was done!
Regards, Steve
Zero, I have an extra National Instruments DAQ card for ISA. It will do 1.25 Msps as a scope. Look at the website
(www.natinst.com) and you will see some examples. This is the same card I am using on my bench. With the NI software it can be almost anything you could imagine. The software comes with a whole suite of test instruments already made. You just click on the list and instant dso, freq counter, dmm, signal generator, spectrum analyzer,ect. I have about $100 in this card if you would be interested. It orignally cost around $2000. There is a lot of DAQ pc stuff on Ebay at very cheap prices. NI now has a lot of competition. Also look up Tern. They have a nice assortment of external serial or usb DAQ items.
I used the pcmcia version of my NI card for capturing the sound of a gun firing through a silencer. A customer wanted to graph the differences made by modifying the sections in his silencer. You could replay the graph (amplitude across time) and see the hammer strike, the bullet exit the barrel, and the bullet hitting the sand and foam target 20 feet away. It worked out real well. The hammer was the loudest sound when he was done!
Regards, Steve
Softwire updated
There is an updated version of Softwire available from the Measurement Computing website. They have put the FFT back into the math functions (it went AWOL between v4.00 and v5.10). This great program is "freeware" and mates up with various Measurement Computing USB modules.
here are the new math "forms"
here's the set of Mccdaq "forms" for Visual Basic.
There is an updated version of Softwire available from the Measurement Computing website. They have put the FFT back into the math functions (it went AWOL between v4.00 and v5.10). This great program is "freeware" and mates up with various Measurement Computing USB modules.
here are the new math "forms"
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
here's the set of Mccdaq "forms" for Visual Basic.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Does anyone have experienece with the Velleman pcs 500 PC Based scope/spectrum analyzer? I'm debating whether to pick up an old HP 331a-334a distortion analyzer ($100-150) or go with a PC based data acquisition system. If not the Velleman, something else in the same price range (+-$300)?
I'll be using it to check distortion in amplifiers and op-amp based circuits (e.g. active crossovers). BTW: I already have a nice 150mz Tektronics oscilloscope so the primary interest would spectrum/distortion analyzer.
Thanks,
Denis
I'll be using it to check distortion in amplifiers and op-amp based circuits (e.g. active crossovers). BTW: I already have a nice 150mz Tektronics oscilloscope so the primary interest would spectrum/distortion analyzer.
Thanks,
Denis
Tek
I've got a Tek 465M portable scope, and a 3 bay Tek unit...trying to remember the numbers...I think its called a TM503 with 3 plugins- FG501 function gen; DM501 digital multimeter and PS501 power supply. All bought super cheap on line.
While they are in the garage, they sometimes make it into the house when the wife is away. Here is a fuzzy pic of a recent testing setup: Link to pic.
You also see a cheapie hand multimeter- invaluable.
And that's it.
I've got a Tek 465M portable scope, and a 3 bay Tek unit...trying to remember the numbers...I think its called a TM503 with 3 plugins- FG501 function gen; DM501 digital multimeter and PS501 power supply. All bought super cheap on line.
While they are in the garage, they sometimes make it into the house when the wife is away. Here is a fuzzy pic of a recent testing setup: Link to pic.
You also see a cheapie hand multimeter- invaluable.
And that's it.
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